A less government conservative Republican from Livingston County, MI
Opinions on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Livingston County Republican Party.
Chairman of LCRP since January 2013

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Obamacare Upheld - including the mandate

I thought this could go either way. I expected part of the law to stand and part of it to be gone. Technically I was right, but not in the way I thought I was. I figured the expansion would stand and the mandate would be gone. All that's gone is that the state can't get the medicaid funds cut off by the feds.

Justice Roberts is the 5th Vote. I do have a lot of respect for Roberts, so I'll have to read his decision before commenting in depth. A quick read leaves me unimpressed.

The Supreme Court upheld President Obama's health care law today in a
splintered, complex opinion that gives Obama a major election-year
victory.
Basically. the justices said that the individual mandate
-- the requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a
fine -- is constitutional as a tax.
Chief Justice John
Roberts -- a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush --
provided the key vote to preserve the landmark health care law, which
figures to be a major issue in Obama's re-election bid against
Republican opponent Mitt Romney.
The government had argued that
Congress had the authority to pass the individual mandate as part of its
power to regulate interstate commerce; the court disagreed with that
analysis, but preserved the mandate because the fine amounts to a tax
that is within Congress' constitutional taxing powers.
The
announcement will have a major impact on the nation's health care
system, the actions of both federal and state governments, and the
course of the November presidential and congressional elections.
The law's individual mandate had been the key question for the court.

First off this isn't a health care law. It's a health insurance law. However, Obamacare survived outside of the part of the feds terminating medicaid funds.

INDIVIDUAL MANDATE HELD UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDER COMMERCE POWER, but Scotusblog says it survives as a tax. “It’s very complicated, so we’re still figuring it out.”
I feel sorry for the folks on TV trying to read this opinion and talk at the same time.

UPDATE: From ScotusBlog: “The bottom line: the entire ACA is
upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to
terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read.” Plus: “The money
quote from the section on the mandate: ‘Our precedent demonstrates that
Congress had the power to impose the exaction in Section 5000A under the
taxing power, and that Section 5000A need not be read to do more than
impose a tax. This is sufficient to sustain it.’”

So it was upheld on a basis — the taxing power — that the
Administration didn’t advance. In fact, Obama denied that it was a tax.
This just supports what Mike Graetz told me in Tax class years ago:
“The constitution stops where the Internal Revenue Code begins.”

On the upside, the Lopez revolution, which some believed dead, appears to be revived.
So, liberals, does this mean the Supreme Court is legitimate again?

And what’s next? Republicans will have to push for repeal, or look
like losers. Now Romney needs to make an issue of repealing the “Obama
Healthcare Tax,” I guess. And, of course, it’s important to note that
just because the Supreme Court — barely — found the Act constitutional
doesn’t mean that it’s actually a good idea.

There's plenty at Volokh and Instapundit which are a helluva lot better covering legal issues than the major media.

The more I'm reading, the less I like about the decision. What makes no sense to me at first glace is how SCOTUS decides that the penalty is not a tax for the purposes of the AIA (which would end the case right there with it unheard), and then decide the case by renaming the penalty
a tax and upholding the law.

Overall, I'd call this a major loss with a consolation prize on commerce clause expansion. The lesson? Elections have consequences.